North is up in this
image. M99 is the galaxy toward the right of the image, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Coma
Beremices. It is
also a member of the large Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. It is somewhat asymmetric
and not much to account for the asymmetry other than speculation on gravitational
encounters with other cluster member galaxies. Toward the are
galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298. There are several other visually smaller
galaxies in the field better seen in the full size image or in the
annotated image. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in
the archives here. M99's
distance from Earth is popularly given as 60 million light years, but several
Tully -Fisher estimates put it between about 50-55 million light years. NGC 4302
and NGC 4298 are about the same distance by Tully-Fisher. Horizontal FOV is
88'